Dania Welding Plant Blaze Triggers Blasts

DANIA BEACH — A ravenous fire, fed by thousands of propane gas cylinders, raged out of control for about 10 hours, turning a two-story, family-owned welding factory into a smoldering mound of concrete and twisted metal debris Sunday morning.

The fire at Uniweld Products Inc., at 2850 Ravenswood Road, sent shrapnel and boiling cylinders of propane rocketing through the roof of the building onto the street, where they exploded like firecrackers and forced firefighters to retreat about half a mile down the road for safety.

"It sounded like the grand finale to a Fourth of July celebration, and it lasted about an hour and a half," said Dania Beach Fire Marshal Ed Tarmey of the explosions. "This is in the top two or three fires we've ever had in Dania Beach and probably the most dangerous."

The blaze started around 11 p.m. Saturday and raged until about 9 a.m. Sunday, shutting down exit ramps from Interstate 95 to Davie Boulevard, Griffin Road and Interstate 595 because of billowing smoke. About 100 people were evacuated from the nearby Ramada Inn and the Villager Lodge, police said.

The Uniweld welding factory, which manufactures cutting torch equipment, pressure gauges and tools for refrigeration, was packed with 19,000 to 24,000, one-pound cylinders of propane, which fed the raging fire. Containers of petroleum and canisters of nitrogen and compressed oxygen may also have fueled the flames, which shot 100 feet into the night sky, said Steve McInerny, Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue division chief.

A brick fire wall kept the fire from spreading to three, 1,000-gallon tanks of propane gas behind the factory. No one was injured.

Uniweld co-owner Douglas Pearl arrived around midnight to find the factory his father ran 50 years ago engulfed in flames. He was arrested for disorderly conduct.

"You could imagine me being a little emotional. It's our life," said Pearl, 44, who runs the business with his brother David. "All of us -- my father, my brother, the employees -- we live the business. We are a family business. We have employees that have been working for us as much as 30 years, and we care for them as much as we care for the business."

About 100 firefighters from Dania Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood tried to control the fire until about 2:30 a.m. Sunday when the exploding canisters forced the firefighters to watch the blaze from a distance, rendering them powerless to control it.

Investigators from the state Fire Marshal's Office, Dania Beach Fire Marshal's Office and Broward Sheriff's Office Bomb and Arson Unit will begin investigating the cause of the fire at 8 a.m. today. They said they will have to use front-end loaders to clear the debris to allow them access to the building.

The fire originally was spotted near the machine shop area of the factory, where vats of petroleum-based coolant were kept, Tarmey said. From there it moved to the storage area, where the canisters of recently delivered propane were kept. A print shop on the second floor was destroyed as the fire spread through the roof. Firefighters used ladder trucks to shoot about 600 gallons of water per minute into the flaming factory.

But it was not enough. When the propane in the cylinders reached a boiling point and the pressure was too much they sailed into the sky and across the street.

"There were continuous explosions that would rattle your insides," McInerny said. "The cylinders were basically like bombs, no different than a hand grenade. There is a long history of these fires killing firefighters."

McInerny said a lack of fire hydrants in the area also made fighting the fire more difficult.

About 100 people from the Ramada Inn were taken to nearby hotels to escape the billowing smoke. Others were taken by bus to Outdoor World, Broward Sheriff's Office spokesman Kirk Englehardt said.

"I've never seen anything like this in my whole life," said Steve Weinstein, who lives behind the Ramada Inn. "It was like a war going on across the street. A piece of shrapnel landed about 10 feet away from me."

Shauna Jamieson can be reached at sjamieson@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4552.